The problem of sudden unexpected death among children, especially infants, is unfortunately not a new phenomena and causes of these deaths are neither known nor are they fully understood. Fortunately though, there is a period of time between apparent death and permanent death during which if failure of respiration can be detected, there remains enough time left to save the life.
The prior art presents a number of devices which can detect this pre-death situation. Typically though, these devices require either elaborate procedures, or controlled environments, or facility power, as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,643,652 "Medical Breathing Measuring System" by Delfin J. Beltran, or 3,730,173 "Stimulation Method and Apparatus for Attempting to Return a Physiological Parameter of a Patient to Normal" by David W. Deaton, or 3,898,981 "Respiration Monitoring Apparatus" by Raymon B. Basham, or 3,545,429 "Respiration Monitor" by Edmond R. Pelta, and others.